How It's Going: The Phillies Are Two Wins Away From A Parade

Lots Of This

The best month in Philadelphia sports history continued tonight with a 7-0 Game Three beatdown of the strongly favored Houston Astros. The Phillies went deep a record five times, three times in the first two innings, and the home team got nine shutout innings from their 3rd best starting pitcher and their absolute worst bullpen arms. 

You really can't imagine what this crowd is like right now; people are standing and screaming their heads off for hours on end, with seismic booms answering long balls. They are ride or die even when the game is out of reach for the opponent. They are making grown-ass baseball men wonder if anyone's home field advantage has ever been like this. It's just that nuts, honestly -- and in response, the Phillies are undefeated at home in the playoffs this year, with an absurd amount of offense and power. 

But wait, there's more. The bullpen, long considered to be suspect at best and owning the highest ERA of any team that made the post-season, hasn't given up a run in the first three games. Right fielder Nick Castellanos, never considered to be a plus defender, keep taking away hits. But the most remarkable thing to me just continues to be Phillies manager Rob Thomson running rings around the other dugout.

Astros SP Lance McCullers Jr. set a dubious record by giving up all of the homers, and if you want to wonder why a manager would squander a plus bullpen in a pivotal game by sticking with a guy who is getting crushed, well... it's another series where Thomson's aggression at changing pitchers was matched by his opponent asleep at the wheel. 

All of this, of course, doesn't mean anything if they can't win two out of the next four games, and if they really want to end the town, just win the next two at home, the way you ended the Braves and Padres previously. It's crazy to think it could go down like that, and Houston didn't win 100+ games on looks; momentum can change and this could all go away. But for right now, it's always sunny in Philadelphia -- except when it rains and allows the Phillies to start their preferred Game 3 starter, who then becomes just the second guy to ever wear the laundry and start a playoff game without giving up a run. (Oh, and he's a lefty, and the Astros murder lefties. Just not this one, and just not on this night.)

Two to go...